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Chapter 2. Initial Load Balancer Add-On Configuration

2.1. Configuring Services on the LVS Routers
2.2. Setting a Password for the Piranha Configuration Tool
2.3. Starting the Piranha Configuration Tool Service
2.3.1. Configuring the Piranha Configuration Tool Web Server Port
2.4. Limiting Access To the Piranha Configuration Tool
2.5. Turning on Packet Forwarding
2.6. Configuring Services on the Real Servers
After installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you must take some basic steps to set up both the LVS routers and the real servers. This chapter covers these initial steps in detail.

Note

The LVS router node that becomes the active node once Load Balancer Add-On is started is also referred to as the primary node. When configuring Load Balancer Add-On, use the Piranha Configuration Tool on the primary node.

2.1. Configuring Services on the LVS Routers

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation program installs all of the components needed to set up Load Balancer Add-On, but the appropriate services must be activated before configuring Load Balancer Add-On. For both LVS routers, set the appropriate services to start at boot time. There are three primary tools available for setting services to activate at boot time under Red Hat Enterprise Linux: the command line program chkconfig, the ncurses-based program ntsysv, and the graphical Services Configuration Tool. All of these tools require root access.

Note

To attain root access, open a shell prompt and use the su - command followed by the root password. For example: 
$ su - root password
On the LVS routers, there are three services which need to be set to activate at boot time:
  • The piranha-gui service (primary node only)
  • The pulse service
  • The sshd service
If you are clustering multi-port services or using firewall marks, you must also enable the iptables service.
It is best to set these services to activate in both runlevel 3 and runlevel 5. To accomplish this using chkconfig, type the following command for each service:
/sbin/chkconfig --level 35 daemon on
In the above command, replace daemon with the name of the service you are activating. To get a list of services on the system as well as what runlevel they are set to activate on, issue the following command:
/sbin/chkconfig --list

Warning

Turning any of the above services on using chkconfig does not actually start the daemon. To do this use the /sbin/service command. See Section 2.3, “Starting the Piranha Configuration Tool Service” for an example of how to use the /sbin/service command.
For more information on runlevels and configuring services with ntsysv and the Services Configuration Tool, refer to the chapter titled "Controlling Access to Services" in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Administration Guide.